WAHHAAAYYYYY!!!!!

Sorry for that rather unexpected outburst, but it’s really the only appropriate response to Never Known Peace, the new full length from major Oakland ragers Doomsday.

As you may imagine, we get sent a lot of music for review consideration – an awful lot – and it takes something special from an ‘unknown’ band to cut through the general hubbub and major label-generated noise.

Never Known Peace is just such a record; half an hour of fat-free, protein rich hardcore informed thrash that’ll have yer eyebrows off within seconds of first contact. You don’t really need me to explain further – ‘hardcore informed thrash’ tells you all you need to know, but I’m a professional and I’ve been charged with the responsibility of reviewing this lil’ ripsnorter, so here goes…

Charlie D leads from the front with a frankly unhinged vocal assault, nicely enriched by the inevitable gang chants so loved of expositors of this kind of music. An eyes-bulging mashup of Baloff and Ellsworth, he’s an absolute master of his art. Of course, if the songs were rotten he wouldn’t sound so good, so it’s lucky that in the shape of tracks like The Outlaw and the insanely, dangerously infectious Pain Dweller he’s got some absolute belters on which to shine.

Doomsday’s stringed instrument department isn’t exactly lacking, either; Glendon “G” Diaz whips the four string motherfucker to within an inch of it’s life, grumbling away nicely and always locked in with his percussive partner Eddie Vigil, whilst the huge guitars of Ryan Calaveras and Robert “Big Rob” DeLorenzi carve out some of the most damaging noise I’ve heard in quite some while, pumping out riff after miraculous riff as if this sort of business was second nature, whilst at the same time unleashing a squadron of dive bomb solos that won’t fail to get fingers of a certain age twitching enthusiastically.

The title track is absolute mayhem, as fine a slab of aural savagery as your ears could wish to hear, and I can’t recommend Never Known Peace highly enough. Bang that head that doesn’t bang!

Never Known Peace releases on March 28th.